Best Addition to the National Register of Historic Places (2010)

It's easy to think of Bastien's as a time machine perpetually dialed to 1958. That was the year Bastien's opened, and it's been run by the same family for the past five decades — which means it hasn't been subjected to the regular remod­eling that comes with new owners trying to hook trendy prima diners. From the outside, the folded-plate roof and neon-embellished sign reflects Denver architect Bernard N. Cahlander Jr.'s interpretation of the Googie movement of Southern California coffee-shop design. And now those touches have landed the building on the National Register of Historic Places. Once the very definition of contemporary, the sunken circular bay, the hemispherical skylight and the metal screens seem as quaint as the tufted ottomans in a Victorian mansion — and they're just as important to preserve.